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Global Political and Economic Order After the COVID Crisis: US-China Competition, Digital Transformation, and Governance Changes
| Accelerated Strategic Competition between the US and China, Digital Transformation and Political Economy, Transformation of Governance and the Global Political-Economic Order After COVID The global economy is in crisis due to the worldwide spread of COVID-19. It is currently experiencing the most rapid economic recession and its scope of damage is unprecedented compared to the past. The nine authors discuss the impact of this crisis on the global political-economic order, the acceleration of the decline of the liberal international order due to the pandemic, the worsening US-China economic conflict, and the differences in crisis response among countries. This book analyzes changes in political economy at the national, regional, and international organization levels and seeks countermeasures. Accelerated US-China Competition, Digital Transformation and Political Economy, COVID Shock and Governance COVID-19 is accelerating change. The first change is the importance of non-traditional threats and non-traditional security. While the foundation of US hegemony remains strong in military power, advanced technology, reserve currency, and cultural influence, the period for China's economic scale to catch up to the US may shorten, leading to intensified competition between the two countries. The second change is digital transformation. Due to the technological characteristics after COVID-19, the transition to a digital economy is accelerating in daily life as well as in various production and service sectors. The third is the shaking of governance. While it is too early to judge the pandemic responses of various countries, a dichotomy of successful authoritarianism and failing liberal democracy has begun to form. Regarding this, the nine authors argue that as the crisis deepens, opportunities will grow. |
This book analyzes the changes in global and domestic order resulting from the worldwide spread of COVID-19 from a political-economic perspective. The main content of each chapter is as follows.
Chapter 1 (Kim Sang-bae) analyzes the evolution of digital platform competition. US-China platform competition has expanded to areas such as SNS, video, OTT, and gaming in the face of the COVID crisis, and platform competition will intensify in the future. Such competition can also be viewed as 'geopolitical competition.' Korea, caught between the US and China, must consider future national strategies to respond to the rise of digital platform competition.
Chapter 2 (Lee Seung-ju) analyzes the moves by the US and China to strengthen regional cooperation, using vaccine development, production, and distribution as a case study. Prior to COVID-19, the US and China focused on bilateral competition and negotiation, but after COVID-19, they are relatively increasing the emphasis on regional strategies. The US and China are also leading a competitive dynamic in the provision of the global public good of vaccine supply.
Chapter 3 (Kim Tae-gyun) seeks to answer two macro-level questions that arise in the process of the unprecedented health crisis of COVID-19 demanding a paradigm shift in governance. The author analyzes two main questions: how the US and China are expanding their influence in the Global South by stabilizing international health security and the international economic order, and how the conflict between China and India, which opposes the strengthening of US hegemony, is connected to the strategic competition between the US and China.
Chapter 4 (Bae Young-ja) examines how the development and status of developing countries are changing from the perspective of Global Value Chains (GVCs). Developing countries lack the capacity for digital transformation due to low levels of digital infrastructure and technological innovation. Consequently, the digital transformation gap between developing and developed countries is expected to widen. The gap between developed and developing countries is widening further after COVID-19, making countermeasures urgent.
Chapter 5 (Jeong Ju-yeon) raises the issue of the role and capacity of the state in the era of COVID-19 and verifies the usefulness of the concept of a 'strong state,' referring to the state capacity of countries that have relatively succeeded in epidemic prevention. In particular, it provides a detailed analysis of China's response to COVID-19 as one of the 'strong states.'
Chapter 6 (Lee Wang-hwi) demonstrates that the debate on authoritarian versus liberal democratic governance has significant implications for US-China strategic competition. While it is too early to assess which country's governance is superior, if China successfully overcomes the crisis more quickly, its governance model emphasizing state capacity may be evaluated as more efficient.
Chapter 7 (Lee Jeong-hwan) analyzes the state-society relationship as one of the variables in the response to COVID-19. The reason Japan has not actively responded to COVID-19 is the patron-client relationship between the government and the medical community. However, the reorganization of these societal sectors carries the dilemma of shaking the patron-client state-society relations that formed the basis of post-war Japanese social stability.
Chapter 8 (Lee Yong-wook) provides a detailed analysis of the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) COVID response policies, particularly unconventional monetary policies. The new normal for central banks to watch in the post-COVID era refers to a shift in the paradigm of balancing employment and price stability. It emphasizes that the scope, scale, and direction of changes in the role, function, and core paradigm of central banks in the post-COVID era are fluid.
Chapter 9 (Cho Hong-sik) analyzes the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 crisis on governance in the European region. Europe can be seen as having successfully transformed through the COVID-19 crisis. The European Union has emerged as a new actor in health policy by taking on the role of vaccine supply and has succeeded in launching EU-level fiscal policies to overcome the economic crisis.
Table of Contents
IntroductionGlobal Political and Economic Order After the COVID Crisis | Son Yeol
Part I Changes in the Global Political and Economic Order Due to COVID-19
Chapter 1 Digital Platform Competition in the Non-Face-to-Face Era: The Complex Geopolitics of US-China Technological Hegemony Competition | Kim Sang-bae
Chapter 2 US-China Regional Competition and Vaccine Diplomacy in the COVID-19 Era | Lee Seung-ju
Chapter 3 US-China Strategic Competition and Changes in the Global South Order | Kim Tae-gyun
Chapter 4 Digital Economy and Changes in Global Value Chains | Bae Young-ja
Part II COVID-19 and National Governance
Chapter 5 The State and Democracy After COVID-19 | Jeong Ju-yeon
Chapter 6 Governance and State Capacity: The Case of China | Lee Wang-hwi
Chapter 7 Legacies of State-Society Relations and Crisis Response: COVID-19 and Japan | Lee Jeong-hwan
Chapter 8 US Economic Response Strategies: Focusing on Monetary Policy | Lee Yong-wook
Chapter 9 The COVID-19 Crisis and the Transformation of European Integration | Cho Hong-sik
*This text is an AI translation of an original written in Korean. Some translations or nuances may be inaccurate.